Fermata
by Pixelated Optimism
Summary: No matter how uncouth and impossible she was.


**Fermata**

**Author: Pixelated Optimism **

_No matter how uncouth and impossible she was._

* * *

It wasn't like it was a special afternoon. Truth be told it looked like all the afternoons he spent in that tidy apartment. Nothing much was different, score sheets strewn at that corner, pillows littering on that side, bowls of cup licked clean left on that table, a Kazuo figure up there . . .

Maybe it wasn't as tidy as it used to be, but nothing much changed anyways.

It wasn't a special afternoon.

She mumbled something, eyes lazily fighting the urge to close, and losing the lull of sleep. He muttered something unintelligible back, they looked at each other, her lips gave her away.

"Senpai" she breathed, adjusting her head comfortably in his lap. Whatever string of sentences that could've followed suit was easily forgotten, and he couldn't blame her. It wasn't a special afternoon, but it was a calm one, that kind where you'd want to laze around and sleep.

"What is it?" he breathed back, closing his eyes momentarily. He heard her mutter. He asked again.

"Nothing" she curtly said. There, he hated that. She'd developed a new habit of dropping things and leaving it out for him to figure it out. Isn't this supposed to be the other way around?

"Spit it out" he snapped. A bright hazel eye opened and met his annoyed gaze.

"It's nothing, really" she answered back. He felt breathing a sigh that could've been worth his lifetime.

"Noda Megumi I dema—"

"_Kiss me_"

He gagged.

She smiled, childish, her eyes glittering like the sun rested there. And he melted, full five seconds, after all those years he still hasn't figured out why, no matter how uncouth and impossible she was.

He fell.

He leaned in, not yielding to all the protests his sanity was screaming at him, but she chided away, pouting like that stupid fish.

"Mukyaa, senpai" she whined in a soft voice. He leaned away.

"What?"

His voice came out flat, annoyed, and he was pleased, because Nodame was simple, and Nodame sometimes was as dense as she was a genius in the piano. Crossing idiocy out was easy like this with his voice alone.

"Make it romantic" she giggled like the old fool that she was "Like those in the movies"

He leaned his head on the sofa and tried to shake her head off his lap.

"Haven't I had enough theatrics to start off?"

She inched back, her hair tickling him, her brown puppy eyes bordered on him.

"Every time you kiss or hug Nodame, it's always sudden" she pouted "I can't even look beautiful when you do it!"

"Give me a break"

His gaze rested on the solitary Kazuo figure she perched on the rack of the opposite wall as she ticked her fingers one by one with renewed frustration.

"Remember that concert when I asked for your autograph? And my first recital at Malo, That time when you came back from your concert with Rui! That one when you helped me with Yoda-sensei's assignments, whaa, Nodame's fingers aren't enough, senpai!"

She only ticked four, but she still waved her big hands in front of his face.

If he was the one ticking, his fingers wouldn't be enough. His first conducting competition, that one when he dragged her to Nina's house and nearly lost his wits because she wouldn't do a concerto with him anymore, that kiss in the bridge, those stolen pecks whenever he was in the mood, his occasional embraces in the morning . . .

"You're forgetting something important" he drawled. For a moment she stared at him, her brows slowly furrowed in lost thought.

Maybe she could use a little help.

He leaned in, but she inched away, still looking puzzled.

"Nodame is trying to remember, senpai"

He sighed and mouthed _Fukuoka Prefecture_.

The sun went back to her eyes.

"That's when senpai confessed his _love_ for Nodame!" she squealed. He fought the urge to slam a pillow on her face when she gloated about them being the _Golden Pair._

"Asking you to study in France isn't a kind of confession"

"It is. Nodame felt that senpai cannot possibly live away from Nodame."

Well . . . _that is true_. But of course she wouldn't know it is.

"Whatever" he muttered. Pink dusted her cheeks as she comfortably settled herself on his lap once again.

"Kiss me"

"Kiss yourself"

"Eeeh! Senpai's being mean again!"

"How about calling me Shinichi for instance?"

"Why would I call you Shinichi? Senpai _is _Senpai."

A small smile escaped her lips, and he mirrored her. There was no use getting over an argument with her.

_Remember when she almost killed me on that not-so-deserted road?_

_Senpai _is _Senpai. Nodame _is _Nodame._

They found the silence after a bit comforting.

"Would you still like to kiss me?"

She blushed.

"Of course"

The great fish closed her eyes and pouted her peach lips, giggling stupidly in anticipation. And he can't help but to laugh too, about how excited she still is, albeit all those kisses shared between them, and those warm cuddles they've been through.

So he leaned in and closed the distance between them.

It was a bit warm and sweet.

He slightly allowed space to invade between them, but she leaned forward and met his lips with hers again.

"Just like in the movies" she whispered on his mouth

"I can do so much better, you know" he murmured back.

And they kissed longer than they had to be.

* * *

All hail fluff.

_Penned because of fucking feelings over listening to Nodame Cantabile's OSTs again and again and this sick twisted knot on the pit of my stomach telling me that I terribly miss them so much it actually hurts, and yeah, that fanart I saw on tumblr._

_I just bloody wish that Korean remade would be as awesome as the anime and drama, because if it isn't I don't know what am I about to do. _

_P.S. Fermata means prolonging the note than the usual. I play the piano. I know, unbelievable, right?_

trying to find a store where they sell Chiaki (/*w*\)

おつみる ばけもの


End file.
